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UPDATING All Day, Every Day
BY 6.50pm, traffic stretched back several kilometres. In the southbound lane, vehicles blocked the road as far back as the Tachatchai Checkpoint. Phuket's Police Commander was on the scene. Crowd leaders told him they wanted the twins there to apologise. The blockade was another example of lawlessness on Phuket and followed a similar blockade by Patong tuk-tuk drivers earlier this year.
Original Report
PHUKET: About 500 angry Phuket residents blockaded Phuket's main road from 4pm today in protest at the rape of a pregnant woman by twin boys.
The protesters blocked both sides of Thepkasattri Road and caused huge traffic jams north of the turnoff to Phuket International Airport.
The huge traffic jam is believed to have snared dozens of tourists heading for Phuket International Airport and minivans returning from outings and visa runs.
There is no telling what the angry residents would have done if police had gone ahead with a plan to have the 17-year-old boys reenact their rape of a 25-year-old woman on a dark north Phuket street on Saturday night.
Instead, the boys were this afternoon at the Family Court as proceedings began that are likely to see them held at Phuket Juvenile detention Centre in the Saphan Hin district of Phuket City.
As juvenile offenders, the pair cannot be named and are likely to receive a lighter sentence than they would have been given had they been a year older.
Officials were trying to negotiate with the angry crowd this afternoon. Many of the blockaders claimed to be neighbors of the woman who was five months pregnant.
Doctors at Vachira Phuket Hospital, where she is recovering, were planning today to check on the health of her unborn baby. The woman broke a leg when the twins kicked her off her motorcycle,
But that didn't stop them robbing her and dragging her into the roadside bushes, where she says they raped her despite being told she was pregnant.
She managed to drag herself back to the roadway after the pair fled and alerted nearby residents.
"The blockade was another example of lawlessness on Phuket". Interesting that sometimes blockades are commended here and other times not. 'Peaceful' protests in Bangkok are OK but not in Phuket?
To compare the feelings of people who have had a member of their community raped to that of the tuk tuk thugs is insensitive to say the least.
I so however feel that the presence of the 2 accused would have caused greater problems and a re-enactment, given that they have already confessed, according to some reports would not have achieved anything. Why the police would have even considered such an action is baffling given the tensions that are clearly running high in the area.
Posted by Mister Ree on April 23, 2014 19:17
Editor Comment:
As we've said often, every protest has to be taken on its merits. There are protests that have validity and others that do not. Today's protest should never have happened, and it should have been anticipated and hosed down before it disrupted Phuket's normal daily activities. The only insensitivity is in your mind, MR. There was no justification for this blockade or for the tuk-tuk blockade.